


Sour

by TimmyJaybird



Series: 100 Themes Challenge [17]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: A little angst, Fluff, Jason's old knee injury, Multi, some snuggles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-08-10 16:56:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7853392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimmyJaybird/pseuds/TimmyJaybird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason's knee acts up, when the rains last too long. It's a cold and bitter reminder that he's not a good man- and he's fairly convinced that he should keep everyone and everything at arm's length, in order to preserve it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sour

**Author's Note:**

> The theme was "a place to belong". I was really craving some Joyfire. Also, I loved Jason's knee injury back when he briefly needed the cane, and I _never_ include it...

Jason shivered, grunting to himself as he tugged the blanket he’d dragged off his bed around his shoulders tighter. He was standing, barefoot in the cold sand, lit cigarette dangling between his lips. The air was cold, shockingly so- their island home had been so warm that Jason could easily forget the bite of chill that night could bring. But days of storms on and off had left the air wet and chilled, and if the ache it put into his bad knee was any sign, the rain wasn’t done yet.

 

He reached up from under the blanket, plucking his cigarette from his mouth to tap the ash towards the sand, before replacing it. He took a long drag, smoke billowing around him, as he stared off at the rocks that gave way the crisp white sands. The ocean was splashing higher than usual from the rains, and Jason idly wondered if a high enough tide could happen to put them underwater.

 

Whatever, they’d fly out in Kori’s ship and make a new home somewhere else. Pick up and go like the pack of street rats they were, down to their core.

 

At least, that’s how Jason saw them.

 

Another drag, and he was tossing the cigarette away, turning and heading back inside. The door shut behind him, but the floors felt freezing beneath his bare feet. The ship wasn’t regulating temperature properly- and despite that it left Jason miserable, it was the middle of the night and he wasn’t about to wake either of his sleeping partners to try and fix it.

 

Nor was he about to do it himself. He trusted Kori with her own ship- and Roy, well, he didn’t give Jason a choice  _ but _ to trust him- but he didn’t exactly want to poke around himself.

 

He shook his head, curls wild form tossing in his bed, trying to get comfortable and  _ warm _ , as he walked slowly through the empty halls. His knee was throbbing, and he was silently  _ bitter _ over it- it acted up from time to time, a sour reminder of the man he once was, when he came back from the dead. When he tried to take over Gotham’s underbelly and ended up behind bars for it.

 

At least Tim had broken him out- even if he’d  _ put _ him there.

 

He paused, leaning against the wall and reaching down, blanket flopping around him like an undignified cape as he rubbed at the knee. He’d have to see what they had painkiller wise, and remember to slip a brace on under his suit the next time they went out, if it didn’t stop before that. He hoped it would.

 

He lifted his head, ready to straighten up- and found he suddenly wasn’t alone. Roy was standing there, just outside an open bedroom door- and Jason realized he’d stopped  _ right _ at he and Kori’s room- arms folded loosely. His hair was bed tousled, tugged out in long, gloriously wild tufts, probably from Kori’s fingers.

 

Jason didn’t pretend to not know what they were probably up to, while he was shivering in his bed.

 

“Knee bothering you?” Roy asked, as Jason straightened up, one palm pressed to the wall. He swallowed, and nodded simply because there was no point in lying to Roy. He tried. It never worked. Roy tipped his head, eyes taking in the blanket around Jason’s shoulders. “You cold?”

 

“Freezing,” Jason said, free hand reaching up to keep it clutched around him. “Can’t you tell how off the temperature is? The ship feels like hell froze over.” Compared to its usual temperature, anyway. Usually the air was warm, slightly heavy, a little wet- but Jason had gotten used to that, because with it came those crisp breezes right off the ocean. With it came the fact that Roy and Kori stripped down to so much skin, and it made Jason’s heart race.

 

Roy shrugged a shoulder. “Nah. Kori’s like sleeping in a fire pit.” He shifted a little, seeming to notice it the longer he stood there- and Jason couldn’t blame him, since Roy was in just his damn  _ underwear _ . “C’mere.”

 

“Why? Gonna play doctor?”

 

Roy flashed a toothy grin. “You’d like it.” Jason bit at his cheek, because the truth was he  _ would _ , but he wouldn’t admit it. Roy was with  _ Kori _ , and that meant that the both of them- well, they didn’t need him in the middle. Even if he caved sometimes, when they asked, beckoned with curled fingers and perfect smiles and so much damn  _ promise _ .

 

But Jason wouldn’t let himself believe it could  _ be _ anything. After all, he just fucked up the people he cared about- it was better to just stay a few steps back and simply  _ watch _ .

 

He could consider how that sort of voyeuristic tendency was more  _ Tim _ than he cared to admit some other night.

 

He forced himself to walk over, fighting back the cringe. Little sparks of pain were shooting up his knee, and when he got to Roy and the man was grabbing his blanket covered arm, guiding him- well, he was a little glad for the support.

 

Roy pulled him into his room, didn’t bother flicking on a light. The window let in all the starlight the sky could offer- and Jason figured it was telling that Roy and Kori had never once put up any sort of curtain. Jason tried to stop, a few feet from the bed, where he could see Kori on her belly, still sleeping- but Roy gave him a tug.

 

“She’ll wake up.” Roy only shrugged, before he plopped down on the edge of the bed, guiding Jason to stand between his legs. He forced the blanket open, and Jason let it hang limp over his arms, as Roy reached out, gently touching his knee through his sweatpants. He applied a little pressure and Jason winced, before Roy hummed. “Let me take a look?”

 

“What do you call what you’re doing now?”

 

Roy rolled his eyes, before he reached up, hooking his fingers beneath the waistband of Jason’s sweats. He tugged, until he could just see the elastic band of his underwear, before glancing back up- his eyes asking for silent permission. And Jason, against all his better judgement, gave it with a nod- because Roy’s eyes were haunting and his fingers were the devil’s, and he never  _ wanted _ to say no even when he knew he should.

 

Roy guided the sweatpants down Jason’s thick thighs, forcing them all the way to the floor, before his hands were back on Jason’s knee. He pressed, and when Jason hissed out a breath, Roy frowned. “It’s a little swollen.”

 

“Happens when it rains sometimes. At least on end like it has been- coulda told you that.” Roy  _ tsk’d _ .

 

“You should get off it for a bit.”

 

“I’ll live. Throw a brace on under my suit. It’s not bad enough that I need the cane again at least.” Jason hoped it wouldn’t get to that point. He had it tucked up under his bed, hidden away with all the things he never wanted anyone to see. It just reminded him again of all the  _ bad _ he could do, when he tried, like the damn knee itself.

 

Roy looked about to say something, when Kori was suddenly moving. She sat up slowly behind him, reaching up to rub one gorgeously bright green eye, yawning. Her hair was falling all around her, wild vibrants waves over her shoulders and down her back. She glanced past Roy, and when she saw Jason offered him a sleepy smile.

 

“Hello Jason.”

 

“Kori.” Jason swallowed, and felt a little awkward with his damn pants on the floor. “I, uh-”

 

“Was letting me look at his knee,” Roy filled in, glancing back and smiling at Kori. “It’s acting up. Also he feels like he slept in a freeze.” Roy leaned back on one hand, and Kori leaned forward, around him- reaching out to touch Jason’s thigh. The moment she did he shivered- but the good kind, because she truly was like fire. She recoiled, her eyes going wide, before she pushed at Roy, forcing him away from the middle space of the bed.

 

“You feel like ice,” Kori said, sounding concerned. “Come.” Jason started to shake his head, but Roy was sitting back up, curling his hand behind one of Jason’s thighs, giving a little nudge.

 

“C’mon Jaybird. You were the one complaining ‘bout how cold you are. Get in here.” Jason glanced from Roy to Kori- and he could see her more clearly now,  _ naked _ , and his eyes jumped back to the center of the bed.

 

If he was honest, one- or  _ both _ \- of them had probably been sprawled there earlier, a mess of naked skin and dragging nails- and it felt  _ wrong _ to put himself there.

 

And yet- Jason sighed, dropping the blanket from his shoulders to join his sweatpants on the floor. He leaned forward, crawled onto the bed- winced when his body weight was done on his knee, and was quick to roll over, to flop on his back and stare up at the ceiling. Beside him there was movement, and then Roy was flopped over, an arm thrown over his waist as he leaned in, nuzzled Jason’s shoulder. Kori was pulling the blanket up, tangling her legs with one of Jason’s, before her hand was splayed on his chest, the heat of it definable through his thin tshirt.

 

“How does one person become so cold?” she asked, and Jason tried not to focus on the fact that she, honestly, one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen in his damn life.

 

Because that was  _ intimidating _ .

 

And at the same time, he was trying not to notice the way Roy rubbed the subtle curve of his waist, continued to nuzzle his shoulder, drag his mouth across the cotton of his tshirt in what might have been lazy kisses.

 

“You die, and you never really shake that cold from your bones,” Jason said, and god, maybe he meant it as a joke- but Kori cringed slightly, and Roy, he stopped those lazy almost-kisses. And Jason just wanted to take it back, wanted to smack himself because this could be  _ good _ and there he was, ruining it with sarcasm and the only damn defense he felt he ever truly had.

 

Just joke about  _ dying _ and pretend it wouldn’t happen again- or that it wouldn’t matter, when it did.

 

“Yeah well, I think we accept that challenge,” Roy offered, giving Kori a little nod. She settled down, pushing flush against Jason’s side- and his hand trembled, when he wrapped his arm around her, splayed it in her long hair and against the small of her back. “We’re pretty  _ hot _ .”

 

He grinned, and Kori buried her face into Jason’s chest, giggling. Jason swallowed, still staring up at the ceiling, butterflies beginning to riot in his gut. “I take you both down a few notches, being here.”

 

“Not even close.” Roy leaned in, and his mouth was on Jason’s neck- gentle, for  _ once _ not feeling exactly like an invitation- and more like simple affection. Which was a miracle, since Jason was pretty damn sure  _ everything _ Roy did was somehow mystically sexual in some way. “You join in and the devil ain’t got  _ nothing _ on us.”

 

“He is correct,” Kori added, the hand on Jason’s chest sliding down, slipping up under his tshirt to splay on his bare belly now. Her thumb rubbed along the trail of hair that led into his boxer briefs, as she added, “You are quite attractive yourself.”

 

Jason shivered- and he knew they  _ both _ felt it. He also knew  _ they knew _ it wasn’t from the chill that was quickly leaving him. And- as if to help him save face- Roy broke in with, “And maybe in the morning we’ll remind you. But I’m voting for a little sleep and a  _ lot _ of snuggling.”

 

Jason closed his eyes, managed a nod- and Roy settled back in, against his shoulder. Kori pillowed her head on his chest, humming softly as her thumb continued to stroke- and Jason got his arms around both of them.

 

“And in the morning I’m looking at your knee again.”

 

Jason cracked a smile that time. “Whatever you say,  _ doc _ .” Roy huffed, his arm tightening over Jason- and Jason let himself relax a little. It was hard to not, when the chill that had been running rampant through him was ebbing away quickly- when Kori was  _ fire _ engulfing him, and Roy was so damn  _ soothing _ .

 

He hated to admit it- because it was a  _ weakness _ , to love this so much. Because he was so damn sure these two were too good for him- but he could be content here, in the center of their bed. He could be  _ happy _ if he just existed between them, until his time ran out.


End file.
